Your First Three Buildings?

[The Grumpy Buddha]

I tend to be a Unity/Tech/Growth junkie, so lately it's always Temple/Agriculture/Research Lab, or most recently Temple/Corporate Culture/Agriculture/Lab, or something along those lines, BUT ... I'm curious what y'all do.

(Agriculture to get up to 1000 food for the +25% growth bonus.)

Talking about both your initial homeworld builds and your builds on generic planets that you don't have profound plans for (e.g., mining planet/energy planet).

 

[Hyomoto]

Research labs, research labs and research labs for the capital. I might be a lunatic though. For other worlds I typically focus on district production of food and energy, so growth buildings like clone vats, robot assemblers, and Gene clinics to in early!

That's just to start of course, part of the reason I like 2.2 so much is redevelopment. Those buildings become less important and I can swap them out as time goes on.

 

[The Grumpy Buddha]

Research labs, research labs and research labs for the capital. I might be a lunatic though. For other worlds I typically focus on district production of food and energy, so growth buildings like clone vats, robot assemblers, and Gene clinics to in early!

That's just to start of course, part of the reason I like 2.2 so much is redevelopment. Those buildings become less important and I can swap them out as time goes on.

Yeah, later on, Clone Vats would be my default; not sure that Gene Clinics are worth it, yet, as it's only +5% growth per pop (plus amenities, maybe?)
I was wondering whether I should go SuperLabs instead, (i.e., Labs x3, or at least x2), but I usually have a lot of $$ early and I like the +50% edict length Ascension, as I usually use edicts to help with consumer goods and pop growth. (In other words, even though the Unity perks are not really broken, I like filling up a couple of trees ASAP.)

 

[Livigy]

Clone vats, gene labs and the monument or robot factory. Pop growth is generally what I want on all planets. Gene lab helps the initial shortage of amenities, there are other means for amenities but I really want the growth.

 

[Strangedane]

Cap is usually Monument/temple, agri district and then either lab or civilian industries if i'm horrendously in the red, else i'll just market my needs.
Popping encourage growth early is important for comfy snowballing.

New colonies are (when techs are in) robot assembly, clone lab, Gene clinic.
Preferred district early are food > mineral > city.

I can't imagine a situation where I'd build a reactor district early game. It's hard enough justifying building them lategame with tons of tech to back it up.

 

[Xeorm]

robot district -> holo theaters -> whichever resources I want next. Later on cloning vats after holo theaters, unless I don't need the amenities right away. I tend to find that I'd prefer having the extra unity and amenities over having a gene clinic as the third choice. Robot construction is a no-brainer second building if I'm going robots.

As far as specialization goes: Does it have some planet-specific buff/negative? Farm that bonus as hard as I can. Otherwise I don't worry much unless it's a large planet. Too much bother much of the time.

 

[Strangedane]

Robot construction is a no-brainer second building if I'm going robots.

I'm currently always going robots.

Psychic ascenscion, fanatic spiritualist?
Robots.

Purging madmen Fanatic xenophobes?
Robots.

Egalitarian xenophile warmonger?
Robots.

There's just no reason not to.

 

[Jabarto]

In the capital, I usually build an alloy foundry first, then a lab and theater.

On rural worlds, I build gene clinics first once I have that tech. Otherwise, I'm a big fan of luxury housing since it's an easy low-cost way to get amenities and rural worlds usually end up needing that housing anyway. Beyond that I usually fill it with foundries or civilian industries as needed.

City worlds usually get a theater or labs after the gene clinic.

 

[ArmChairAttila]

Forge forge CG. Then Rick roll my first contact.

 

[Mastikator]

Alloy Foundry, then nothing but research on my capital and put alloys and industries on other planets. If I get comfortable with my fleet vs my neighbors' fleets then I might start making more tech worlds.

Once I have the tech for it, robo assembly plant, mineral/food/energy hub and then into specialization jobs.

If I'm spiritualist I get temple for amenities, otherwise holo-theater. Never culture workers, they're just bad scientists.

 

[Playwars]

Robot assembly plant, clone vats and gene clinics, in that precise order. My third building is a resources production bonus one (Food, minerals or energy) based on what I want the world to be producing initially, if clone vats aren't available yet. As you can see it's pop growth first, the rest second.

As for my homeworld, it's lab, foundry and culture site, but it highly depends on what type of empire I'm playing.

 

[Cry_Havok]

Holo Theatres, paired with non-city districts, then into specialization. I tend to be... disorganized and reactionary with my planets, so I have a ton of rural worlds with scattershot production. Holo Theatres mean not crashing on amenities until being forced to build a city district.

 

[The Grumpy Buddha]

I'm currently always going robots.

Psychic ascenscion, fanatic spiritualist?
Robots.

Purging madmen Fanatic xenophobes?
Robots.

Egalitarian xenophile warmonger?
Robots.

There's just no reason not to.

Skimming random threads on here, I see a lot of robo-hate, so I've been avoiding Materialism and robots in 2.2. (And also, as I said, I'm a big Temple fan.)

Am I a chump for doing so? If so, that'll be my next build.

 

[The Grumpy Buddha]

Forge forge CG. Then Rick roll my first contact.

CG? Do you mean GC (Gene Clinics)?

I was thinking of going Temple Forge Forge and going for early Unity for Raiding and then mass pop theft, though I guess, arguably, if you are a successful raider you could just take over their planets and resettle their pops afterwards (energy is usually not short).

So maybe Raiding is meh?

 

[Derp]

Skimming random threads on here, I see a lot of robo-hate, so I've been avoiding Materialism and robots in 2.2. (And also, as I said, I'm a big Temple fan.)

Am I a chump for doing so? If so, that'll be my next build.

basic robots can fill most worker jobs while costing half as much housing and amenities, and 0 consumer goods
upgraded robots can fill any specialist or worker tier job (worker only if AI is outlawed)

robot assembly is in addition to normal biological pop growth rates, and can be disabled or re-enabled at any time on a planetary level with no faction hits or policy changes (in case you run out of jobs for them on a certain planet)


basically, if you're not taking advantage of robots, you're doing it wrong, or are an extreme RPer

 

[ArmChairAttila]

CG? Do you mean GC (Gene Clinics)?

I was thinking of going Temple Forge Forge and going for early Unity for Raiding and then mass pop theft, though I guess, arguably, if you are a successful raider you could just take over their planets and resettle their pops afterwards (energy is usually not short).

So maybe Raiding is meh?

No CG = consumer goods. I like a real heavy forge start because I have been playing mostly agressive type civs so far. I also float a lot of minerals early game unless I purposely move pops off mines or convert starting mines to energy or food. I suffer in unity and tech but with this heavy forge build you can easily expand your territory, fleets, colonies and starbases early and often.

You are also right about the raiding. This particular build is setup for barbaric dispolers to grab early slaves and just drag the war on to farm the victims resources

 

[AlknicTeos]

in the capital the 3 first buildings are science. With full tech I develop colonies so, raise pop jobs to 6 with 2 districts. Then build numisitic shrine, while I resettle people so they jump to above colonies ( 10 pops) then a clone vats, and 2 further districts, 3 building is bureaucratic complex and 2 further 2 districts, then fill 4,5,6 with research buildings, 7 is reserved (35 pops), when hitting 40ty pops, upgrade main building and build galactic market and reserach institute. Then upping the research buildings, when pops come, to lvl 3 and building some exotic gas refineries. A full developed planet has about 6-8 lvl 3 research center. Oh and building slot 75 goes to gene clinics

 

[redharo]

alloy foundry, alloy foundry, alloy foundry.

the best way to get planets/systems isn't a cheeky "rush the chokepoints". Its to have a fleet so that you can defend the systems that you claim, and also take the systems that you want. If you don't build a fleet, then the systems that you claim, pops you own, and the research labs you built will just be taken by your opponents.

Capturing opponent's planets is also the most efficient way to increase your population and research.

Seize the means of production.

 

[Less2]

alloy foundry, alloy foundry, alloy foundry.

the best way to get planets/systems isn't a cheeky "rush the chokepoints". Its to have a fleet so that you can defend the systems that you claim, and also take the systems that you want. If you don't build a fleet, then the systems that you claim, pops you own, and the research labs you built will just be taken by your opponents.

Capturing opponent's planets is also the most efficient way to increase your population and research.

Seize the means of production.

This is the objectively best method. Taking homeworlds is just OP. Having 120 pops by 2220 while all your neighbors have (literally) 2 makes the whole game a cakewalk, and can be done even on Grand Admiral.

Considering you need alloys for starbases anyway (and get 100 influence from humiliate) this sets you up to claim lots of the map as soon as you finish those wars.

 

[AlanC9]

I dunno if a gameplay style that turns the game into a crashing bore ought to be described as "objectively best." But, yeah, it works.